In brief: Police believe door played role in death

Spokane police say a weekend fatal stabbing of a knife-wielding man in a downtown apartment building appears to be accidental.

Police have not identified the man, who died around 8 p.m. Saturday at the Danmor Apartments, 410 W. Third Ave. Police spokeswoman Jennifer DeRuwe said identification wouldn’t be made until after an autopsy today.

Based on witness statements, a tenant inside the apartments locked himself into one of the rooms after a noisy altercation. Witnesses said the armed man banged on the locked door and remained there, waiting for the occupant to come out.

“At some point the door was opened and it swung out, striking the man with the knife,” DeRuwe said. The door impact apparently caused the knife blade to cut the shoulder artery of the man with the knife, said DeRuwe.

The man began bleeding profusely as he attempted to leave the building. He later collapsed on the sidewalk, according to witnesses.

Tom Sowa

Bill would remove unconstitutional oath

OLYMPIA – State workers and public school employees in Washington are supposed to take an oath that they aren’t a member of the Communist Party or any other subversive organization.

At least, that’s what state law has said since 1951, when the Subversive Activities Act was placed on the books a few years after the Legislature Joint Committee on Un-American Activities held a series of hearings hunting for communists in state government, university faculties and unions.

A Washington Supreme Court ruling in 1964 said the law was so vague in defining a subversive person or group that the loyalty oath was unconstitutional. But that didn’t wipe the oath, or other sections of the act that use the same definitions, off the books.

Several House members have a bill to do that. At a hearing for HB 2251, prime sponsor Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, D-Burien, said it was time to repeal the law nearly a half century after the court ruling.

“I think it devalues our criminal code to have laws on the books that aren’t being enforced,” Fitzgibbon told members of the House Judiciary Committee.

He got no argument from committee members, and no one spoke in favor of keeping the law. The committee is expected to vote on the bill later this week.

Jim Camden